SUPERSONIC FLOW SEPARATION ON A BACKWARD FACING STEP

Abstract

The paper describes an experimental survey of flow separation on backward facing steps having different heights at a Mach number of 2.4. Reattachment and critical points are found for three regimes, laminar, transitional, and turbulent. Reattachment occurs at a point where the pressure is 35% of the free stream value for turbulent flow, and 60% of this value in the laminar case. The length of the free shear layer is found to be one-half that of the separating streamline, a result which emphasizes the importance of the reattachment region. The flow downstream of the critical point is found to be relatively independent of the base flow. Disturbances in the spanwise direction are always observed in laminar flow but do not affect the base pressure.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0647958

Entities

People

  • Abdallah Sfeir

Organizations

  • University of California, Berkeley

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Base Flow
  • Base Pressure
  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Flow Separation
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Free Stream
  • Hot Wire
  • Laminar Flow
  • Mach Number
  • Pressure Distribution
  • Reynolds Number
  • Static Pressure
  • Three Dimensional
  • Turbulent Flow
  • Turbulent Mixing

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Boundary Layers
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow